Subj : No license operators
To   : All
From : n2qfd
Date : Tue Mar 19 2024 05:21 am

  I'm curious where the general consensus is at these days about the non licensed operators.
  I've got an old co-worker who was talking about buying some baofeng HT's and his kids and their cousins playing and enjoying them. I remember doing this exact thing with CB radio when I was a kid but I'm not sure they're not using amateur radio gear unlicensed.
  So, lets pretend for arguments sake they don't have Part 95 Personal Service Radios, but rather are mis using Part 97 gear that would call for a license in the US. Obviously it's wrong because of the license requirement but in a time and a place where there is no amateur activity, and they are operating as intended minus license are they causing any real trouble? 
  Before we had things like TEMU or Amazon there was a little gateway to entry of the seller asking for your license, (not that you couldn't make it up) I had another co-worker who got licensed but first looked up a Silent Key to get a radio. Now I don't think they ask at all before exchanging currency for the item. 
  In the very rural, very hilly part of Pennsylvania they are located as I said there's no interference. If they were 20 miles in any other direction I suspect they'd find trouble. 
  So, have we lost that fight to keep amateur radio from becoming CB? That was always the battle when I first got started and was among the early no-code licenses. The old timers all said, "this will end up as CB for taking down the challenges!" I went on to get my Tech + and then General and became an exclusively CW/digi operator. When I had radio interference issues in Schenectady NY with a freebander pirate radio station being picked up on my electronics (not even radios!) the FCC told me they'd only come and check it out if I could give them a likely address. This was Schenectady, it's a rough town, and I wasn't going to get stabbed to death over some interference. The FCC just had no teeth back in 2008. 
 
  So, what's this debate like now in 2024, is it still a thing? Are we still scared someone might enjoy, (not abuse) our bandwith without a license? 

  N2QFD

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